politics

The BEE, the German Renewable Energy Federation, has a new president, former Green Party co-chair Simone Peter. After stepping down from her party leadership position in January 2018, she was unanimously elected to head the umbrella organization the following month. She replaced Fritz Brickwedde, who had presided over the BEE since October 2013 and resigned for personal reasons.

The heating industry continues to move forward with establishing natural gas as the go-to source for the energy supply of residential buildings, while increasingly adding efficient fuel cell technologies and eco-gas to the mix. The members of the Zukunft Erdgas advocacy group expect oil to no longer play an important role as an energy carrier in the medium term, as they believe it will gradually be replaced by renewable gases. A recent study has shown that this could lead to an around 80 percent cut in CO2 emissions from heat supply.

At the beginning of this year, the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association had its first-ever H2 economic forum in the German capital. On Feb. 18, 2016, around 50 representatives from politics and business were invited to the Dutch embassy in Berlin to discuss green hydrogen opportunities with Germany’s federal environment minister, Barbara Hendricks.